The invention relates to a sleeve, in particular a rubber-blanket sleeve.
Sleeves help printing-press cylinders to roll over one another in a smooth manner due to the lack of interruption by clamping channels on the circumference of the cylinders, which would otherwise usually be present.
German Patent Document No. DE 199 50 643 A1 discloses a sleeve for a web-fed rotary offset press, which sleeve has a construction which has a total of four layers. The sleeve according to DE 199 50 643 A1 has an inner layer which is configured as a carrier layer and an outer layer which is configured as a covering layer and serves for pressure transfer, there being two further layers between the carrier layer and the covering layer. The sleeve according to DE 199 50 643 A1 has a hollow-cylindrical design with a cylindrical inner surface and a cylindrical outer surface, all of the layers of the sleeve having cylindrical inner surfaces and cylindrical outer surfaces.
European Patent Document No. EP 0 819 550 B1 discloses a sleeve for a printing press, which sleeve has a cylindrical outer surface and a conical inner surface. Accordingly, the sleeve according to EP 0 819 550 B1 does not have a hollow-cylindrical design.
Proceeding from this, the present invention is based on the problem of providing a novel sleeve, in particular a novel rubber-blanket sleeve.
According to the invention, the inner layer which is configured as a carrier layer is convexly or concavely curved on the radially outer side, a layer which adjoins the carrier layer having a curvature on a radially inner side which is complementary to the curvature of the radially outer side of the carrier layer.
In the context of the present invention, a multiple-layer sleeve for a printing press is provided, which sleeve has an overall hollow-cylindrical design with a cylindrical inner surface and a cylindrical outer surface. According to the invention, the carrier layer is of cylindrical configuration on its radially inner side and either convexly or concavely curved on its radially outer side. A layer which adjoins the carrier layer has a curvature on a radially inner side which is complementary to the curvature of the radially outer side of the carrier layer. A completely novel construction for a hollow-cylindrical sleeve is provided by the present invention, sides of adjoining layers of the sleeve which lie opposite one another having complementary curvatures, with the result that the outer contour of the sleeves does not deviate ultimately from a hollow-cylindrical shape. As a result, it is possible to realize completely novel sleeve properties. Line-force distributions of the outer, printing and web-guiding covering layers can be influenced by the sleeves according to the invention.